The title of the talk today is Say I Do to the Divine and Be Redeemed.
Say I Do to the Divine and Be Redeemed.
Now for many of us,
Redeemed is a loaded word.
Some of us who were thrashed about,
If you will,
By the way in which we were taught what it meant to be a religious or spiritual human being wound up growing quite reluctant to many of these terms.
And I might add as rightly so,
Because it wasn't necessarily the teaching,
But rather those who would have presented themselves as teachers knew nothing and still know nothing about what they speak.
And so we are here today to look deeply into what is being said meant by the idea of redeemed,
Of rebirth,
But not that we might blindly believe or fear that if we don't,
Something terrible will happen to us,
But because we can see the truth of this.
Perhaps one of the most mysterious things about the New Testament,
The teachings,
The Christian teachings,
Which by the way,
Today and tomorrow,
Some almost 3 billion human beings on this planet.
And today we'll observe what is called the Sabbatum Sanctum.
Sabbatum Sanctum,
That's Latin.
It means Holy Saturday.
And have no idea what it is that they're celebrating other than being conditioned to experience a certain kind of content,
Pleasurable in its idea,
But difficult to understand when we want to live it.
So that we don't understand this idea that all of this is meaningless unless we recognize,
What does it mean to lose my life to find it?
What's involved in that idea to lose my life to find it?
It sounds paradoxical.
What do you,
How can I lose something and find it?
And yet when we begin,
As we will,
To look through this material,
We'll see that until we actually are willing to realize that process by which it seems that we lose something,
But in truth outgrow something intended to be lost.
And that in outgrowing who and what we have been,
We enter into what we have been given in the beginning to discover as true about ourselves.
And in that moment,
This exchange takes place,
Which is the real meaning of this redemption.
So Kate,
Let's bring up the first key lesson,
Please.
And everybody read along with me.
Don't gloss over it.
Every moment is a marriage made in heaven to which you and I have been invited.
So why stand outside the door?
To enter,
You need only make a gift of yourself.
Every moment is a marriage made in heaven to which you and I have been invited.
So why do we stand outside the door?
To enter,
We need only make a gift of ourselves.
What does that mean?
Every moment is a marriage made in heaven that we're invited,
But that we're outside the door.
Not me.
I'm not outside the door.
But as you start to realize that you actually are outside that door,
Which we're going to look at not as a negative concept,
But a way in which to create a new kind of understanding that lets us see,
You know,
That's a fact.
And when that becomes a fact,
Then we'll be interested in the nature of this invitation and what is required if we would take a seat at that union.
So I'll ask you to see something that if you and I look at it closely,
It's undeniable.
It's a fact that's right before our eyes at all times.
What if every moment of our life,
As it appears,
As it unfolds,
Is the true cornucopia?
I thought to myself,
Well,
Not everybody's going to know what cornucopia means,
But it's a word that describes the horn of plenty,
From out of which we see all of these blessings of life across the board,
Pour themselves out so that the invisible creations that give rise to the physical ones,
The forces of creation,
Pour themselves into time,
Into this world.
And as these invisible forces of creation pour themselves into the world,
We can't see it much as we can't with the horn of plenty in an equally invisible act of creation.
All of those energies pour themselves back into what is timeless so that we can see the circulation of this divine celestial being,
The true yin and yang movement and the ceaseless interaction and intersection of these invisible forces that become visible and then become invisible again.
I mean,
When you think about it,
Did you know that you and I are drinking the same water and breathing essentially the same air that the dinosaurs did?
How is that possible?
Nothing can be created or destroyed,
Only transformed.
We live in a ceaseless state of life and energy,
Reconciling itself,
Giving birth to itself again.
And all of it's invisible,
Except for this tiny spectrum of light and matter that our physical eyes are able to perceive.
Are you following me so far?
I want very badly to make us stand together and look at the same things,
Because if we can,
If we are,
Then we realize that what the speaker is doing is describing,
If you will,
Something that is indescribable.
The challenge that all poets,
Mystics,
Anyone with any heart at all,
Writing in their journal,
That I'm trying to describe the indescribable,
Which is what in this instance?
The indescribable is this marriage of infinite intersecting forces between heaven and earth.
Words that we use to describe what is timeless and invisible and what is in time and tangible,
Heaven and earth,
An intersection of these forces that are creating not just these kingdoms,
But a kingdom that has come.
Thy will be done.
Thy kingdom come.
It is done.
We just don't see it.
So the kingdom isn't something that's going to happen when things change or when conditions improve the way we imagine them.
But the true kingdom,
The true relationship between these intersecting forces is never not taking place right in front of us in the here and now.
Now,
I get it.
We can't see it yet.
Our eyes are not sufficiently open,
Our mind not sufficiently fluid to participate in this ceaseless act of creation.
But if we can see it to some extent,
And again,
I ask you,
Can you see to some extent that this is true?
I live in a world where everything's tangible,
Set,
Fixed.
And I'm always trying to get things fixed so that what was disturbed by a movement I couldn't understand can get back to where I do understand it.
So I'm content again.
But if it's true,
What I've described,
And you have to see it as such.
I can't convince you of it.
Then why,
As I stated in the key lesson,
Why do we stand outside the door of this marriage?
And for your sake,
Not mine,
Don't say you're not outside the door.
Look at your life.
We must see,
Honestly see the fact,
Something inside of us.
Maybe it's just every blue moon.
Maybe it's fairly distant.
But something cries out silently,
I want in.
I want to be a part of what real patience is.
I want to be a part of not apart from those I love to be able to speak my heart without worrying that I'll be judged or rejected.
I want in.
I don't want beauty to be something that I see every blue moon.
I want in.
I want to know something directly.
As Einstein said,
I want to know the,
I don't want the thoughts.
I want to know the mind of God.
I want to be a part of that endless divine marriage.
I want in.
I don't want to be outside of it.
And if you're honest enough to admit that that's true,
Not when you suddenly find yourself cast into some hellish state where you're suddenly caught up in suffering and we,
Oh,
Where's God?
I love Christ.
Help me.
All that's nonsense in that moment.
I'm outside,
Which part is what we call the flesh.
This nature by its level of creation stands outside of,
Has not eyes to see physically what is invisible to those eyes.
What's holding me back?
We have to get to that question.
Because if we can get to that question,
We can begin to ask honest questions.
You,
Please,
Again,
This is not judgment.
I'm saying you have no idea how seldom you fail to ask a real question.
And in this instance,
What would the real question be?
If I can see I'm on the outside looking in,
That I look out at a world that seems outside of me.
And then without knowing it,
I take my perception of that which I perceive as be the truth of what's taking place when all I'm seeing without knowing it is the reflection of an unconscious nature that already knows what it's looking at else,
How else could it judge it?
So the real question,
If I can see it is why in the name of God,
Do I experience over and over and over again,
Certain patterns in my life?
Do not the patterns of our lives repeat themselves?
I'll ask you yes or no.
Same frustrations,
Same fears,
Maybe described differently,
The fear of rejection,
Constant,
Same kind of reactions.
Sure,
The faces change,
The conditions like a merry-go-round go round and round.
So the circumstances shift,
But not the way in which I meet those moments where if we're honest,
The pattern remains too familiar,
Which is you say they do,
It won't,
It almost happened.
And then instantaneous reaction and the reaction brings up essentially the same essence,
The same sense of self and the same sense of self then runs through the iteration that it always does of trying to solve for itself,
Why it's experiencing what it's experiencing.
Again,
I ask,
Are we able to see this?
Because if we do,
I will go on to the next key lesson.
This isn't judgment,
This isn't negative.
We're asking for revelation and how do we receive it?
It begins with this.
Kate,
Let's bring up the second key lesson,
Please.
What is born of thought is the seed of thought.
And that seed does not give up its life as all seeds are created to do.
It reincarnates itself.
It carries on becoming the thinker.
Now,
I know that's somewhat obtuse,
A little difficult to grasp,
Because you and I are either identified with the thought or we are thinking about them and don't realize that the thought the thinker entertains cannot be separated from the nature of the thinker.
This is a little bit above us yet,
But we'll see it as our eyes open.
What is born of thought is the seed of thought.
When we have a thought,
We think we're giving the seed of birth to what's coming next that would be better.
No,
Thought can't give birth to what is new.
Thought gives birth to what is itself and reincarnates itself with every image that it clings to and becomes attached to.
Can you see a little bit of that with me?
Take a nice deep breath.
So even though we don't see it,
We don't just have and hold onto old familiar thoughts,
Because that's what happens.
Up comes this old familiar thought,
This old reaction,
And when it comes up,
What happens to me?
Oh no,
I don't want to be like that.
I don't want that.
I don't want to be this kind of person.
And we believe that the thought about being a different kind of person is coming to us from a different level.
No,
Thought gives birth to thought.
Thought analyzes,
Compares that thought to what it should think,
And then comes up with what it says it's missing and then imagines in thought what to give itself to make itself whole.
So anything born of thought is born in time,
And it is time that it gives birth to.
The seed of thought sows itself in the dark ground,
This unconscious nature from out of which it comes.
Only each time a seemingly new thought comes,
It comes to us as new because the thinker,
The one who's looking at it goes,
Oh,
That's a little different.
I'll try this.
I'll change that.
And nothing changes whatsoever.
Why?
Thought cannot free itself from the consciousness that gives rise to it.
Thought cannot free itself from the level of consciousness that gives rise to it.
Thought gives birth to itself and in turn gives birth to the thinker and round and round we go without knowing it's so.
So we find ourselves,
If you're following me,
I trust you are,
Doing what?
Listen to this.
We think that the world,
How do I say this?
We think sometimes,
Oh,
Look at that.
I'm in this circle,
This terrible circle.
Life doesn't circle itself.
If it did,
There'd be no chance to change.
It isn't life that moves in circles.
It's thoughts that move in circles.
When you see something happen again,
Nothing circled you,
Thought drove you around the moment that was intended to change the nature.
And because it didn't change by karmic law,
You will meet that again.
So it's not that life traps us,
But rather we are a captive of a lower level of consciousness that reincarnates itself again and again and again and doesn't know it's doing so because it's new thought feels new to the thinker that gives birth to it and on and on it goes.
Can you see some of this with me before I make the next stage?
So we come to an incredibly important transition.
Nice deep breath.
An important distinction that I'm going to go into depth tomorrow.
I haven't timed today,
But essentially it's this.
Within us are two kinds of seeds.
The seed was a very popular metaphor,
Not just in Christian terminology,
But across the board.
Why?
Because it represents something quite unique.
Even the symbol of the yin and yang,
When we see them,
The two of them bound together represent a seed that is constantly moving and becoming one another.
The seed of time is one of these seeds and this is the seed born of thought.
It is a seed that is sustained by thought and it lives,
Thought does,
That seed that lives through repetition.
That seed exists as cause and effect that cannot see because one moment it is the experience of effect,
The next moment it's judging the cause.
As it tries to weigh the cause,
It comes up with a new effect it wants and it just goes around and around and around,
Always moving from one thought to another and believing that the sensation of that movement of mind is the same as the sensation of life.
It's not the sensation of life if you want to know the truth.
It's death disguised as life because it seems to be alive when it is not.
When Christ said,
Let the dead bury the dead,
That's part of what he was describing.
Because what is thought always trying to do when it meets a moment it doesn't want?
It imagines becoming something else.
It creates a time and a place when it will be different and then strives,
Struggles to find a to be something better or different than it is.
So that's the seed of time.
Thought is the seed of time,
Passing time.
And then there's another kind of seed.
And when I was contemplating this,
The word came,
The idea of a God seed came up,
But I think it would be wiser to say the seed of God,
Not the seed of time of what is in time,
But the seed of God of what is timeless in us.
Two seeds.
One seed we recognize all too much by the suffering that is born out of identifying with its constant reincarnation,
With it giving birth to itself.
But the seed of God,
If you want,
Is not a seed born in time.
It is a timeless seed,
Therefore it is not bound to reincarnation.
It is not bound to repetition.
It's already complete in ways the mind cannot grasp.
It carries within it the seed of God,
Another order of being that we of ourselves cannot create,
Try as we may.
All of the old stories,
The Tower of Babel,
The Wings of Icarus,
All these are metaphors,
Stories about a human being trying to ascend,
Rise above thought by using thought to do so,
Using matter to transcend matter.
It's impossible.
And thought is matter.
So we are made in the image of this seed of God.
Because the seed of God,
As are we,
Made in the likeness of what is celestial and eternal,
Is replete with all of the eternal possibilities fully present within us.
That's part of our dissatisfaction,
Is that there is in fact a kind of light that looks out at our life,
Though we do not see through that eye,
Those eyes yet.
And it says there's more,
There's something deeper,
Something broader,
Something truer.
But it is waiting to be realized,
And that's where we sit,
Is waiting to be realized,
But unfortunately constantly realizing through thought what we must do to enter into this other order of reality.
And if you follow me,
Which I hope you do,
It leads us to a necessary,
And I might add very humbling,
Understanding.
And all true understanding is humbling.
This is what the true meaning of being in awe of God,
Not fear of God,
Humbled before the immensity of something that at once it's beheld,
And we realize we're a part of it,
And yet,
Oh my God,
How can that be?
So we are constantly brought before this new kind of understanding that I will again go into tomorrow in depth.
An understanding that we,
Hang on,
That we of ourselves cannot evolve.
This is the great shock that must come over and over and over again,
Because why?
I keep trying to transcend my troubles,
And I look to transcend my troubles upon the thoughts that,
Because I'm identified with them prior to that moment of disturbance,
Are the source of the trouble I'm trying to just transcend.
What a miracle it is when a human being understands that he or she of themselves,
As Christ even said of myself,
I cannot transcend myself this moment in time.
And we can see this is true if we use our understanding properly.
Look,
What is that passage with connected to lose our life to find it?
Except a kernel of corn abides in the ground alone and dies,
It will not give fruit.
A kernel of corn was nothing,
Is nothing,
Until what?
Until it yields its life.
So there comes a moment where in the life of that kernel of corn,
It must give itself up in order to give birth to a new form,
A new conception that is intended to burst forth from it.
I don't necessarily want you to anthropomorphize this idea,
But here is this kernel of corn,
This grain of wheat,
And something within it is pressing out,
Even as the husk presses back in,
The chaff,
And it's trying to come out.
But we must recognize that this kernel of corn can't imagine what it's made to become.
God,
I don't know how else to say it.
You and I imagine what we are made to become.
One day you'll see the absolute futility.
Oh,
I'm meant to become rich,
Famous,
Handsome,
Loved,
Adored,
Socially prominent.
You have no idea what you're meant to become because you can't know what you're meant to become until you actually come into that level of being.
And this is the mystery,
But it also foments the great question.
If it's impossible for this seed of God within us,
If it's impossible for us to know what it is intended to open up and reveal within us,
Then we can understand to some extent this thing is going to have to open up.
Would you say when you're full of resistance that you're going open,
Open,
Open?
You know,
Or when I'm full of resistance,
Am I going,
No,
No,
No.
Keep everything away.
It's disturbing my little life in this dream of darkness.
So it has to break apart,
Which is the last thing we're interested in doing.
It has to give up what it has been.
Why must it give up what it has been?
Why must we give up what we have been?
Why must we make a gift of ourselves if we want to enter into the union of the divine?
Because something greater than ourselves is calling us forward to do so.
That's what that longing is,
But thought steals it.
The crows come and they take the kernel of corn,
The seed that's been thrown,
And they say,
Here's what you long for,
To be loved,
Cared for,
Consoled,
Rich,
Famous,
Not fat,
Whatever it is that haunts you.
Consider a seed to fulfill its purpose.
What must it do?
Any seed,
Any seed,
Not just the seed of time,
The seed of thought,
Seed of God,
What must it do?
It must lose its present life.
What it calls its present life,
It must lose the form of its present life.
To do so,
It must,
As every seed,
Enter into a dark ground,
Into a dark night,
And it must rest there,
Not struggle,
Rest there.
How?
Receptively.
Receptively on what?
What it is waiting to see come forth from it,
If it will stop struggling to imagine and become what it imagines is supposed to happen in these moments.
Can you see that when things go dark?
When things go dark,
Two things happen at once,
And they're the same thing,
But we don't see it.
Oh God,
Look at this,
Look at that,
This is terrible.
Now what's going to,
All these spiritual years of study,
All lost.
And at the same time that's going on,
The other side of that little mind going,
Yes,
But we can become a different religion.
We can take on some new identity.
We can become part of this political group or assume some power that we don't know yet.
And then you go buy books and find teachers to try to help you describe what is indescribable because you must find it within yourself.
So a kernel of corn,
The seed of God doesn't negotiate this process where suddenly there's some kind of suffering it's not interested in.
It doesn't negotiate,
It doesn't resist it.
The seed of corn,
The seed of God gives up its present form so that the life within it may come forth,
May be conceived and not by effort,
But by exceeding,
By obedience to a greater law that lives within it constantly,
Unendingly.
And here's where we begin,
If you will,
To see the difference between ourselves and the rest of creation,
Because the kernel of corn,
The seed of time has no choice.
It will go around and around,
It will be acted on by certain evolutionary forces,
But its nature,
Its being won't change.
Just the form that being takes changes to accommodate whatever the environment is acting on it.
We are asked to participate in a way the seed can't because it has no choice,
But we do.
That's the miracle of being a human being.
But for the miracle to be actualized,
We must see the fact of this miracle and take our place in it properly by giving ourselves over to what it reveals as true.
We're asked to participate by what?
By dying to ourselves,
By giving ourselves up so that we may enter into this marriage,
Because as long as we're outside of it weighing,
Well,
He's a good groom,
She's a bad bride,
That these people shouldn't be wearing these dresses.
Why are they serving this crummy food?
All these questions about life,
Standing all the time at a wedding that you can't enter into because the mind is a blockage.
So it raises a question.
Why would we agree?
Why would I agree to go through what is asked of me in these moments when I don't want to go through it?
You know,
When you're listening to certain spiritual ideas,
If they're true,
We're going,
Yeah,
I'm all on board.
You read this book,
Hear a talk.
I love this.
Beautiful.
Great.
And then the moment comes just like in the young Frankenstein,
You know,
I can't go into it.
Gene Wilder goes in and he says,
I'm going to overcome this creature with love.
Frankenstein stands up.
Let me out of here.
Gene Wilder,
The young Frankenstein.
I don't want anything to do with this.
There must be something within us that can see all of this,
That can see beyond the encapsulation of this seed of thought that knows even if we only see it through a glass darkly,
That another order of being exists.
How do I know?
Because of this divine dissatisfaction,
Something calls to us from out of the darkness.
And let me restate that.
Something calls to us from out of the darkness.
When you think you see what is calling to you,
You are blind.
And you're blind because you're looking at what the mind has fabricated to free itself from the darkness that by the way,
It was complicit in creating.
What calls to us in the darkness can only be the presence of a living light helping us,
Trying to help us see what we cannot see.
A light that is,
How shall I say,
The seed of God,
A light whose life is not born in time,
A light that is not subject to death.
And this light,
By the way,
It does not argue with us.
You know,
When you argue with yourself,
The divine does not force itself on any human being.
It does within us the work it is created to do as we are created to align ourselves with it.
And what is this great work within us,
In that kernel of corn created to do?
To nourish,
Sustain,
And most importantly,
Reveal the union of its works.
I'm going to say it again because I'm going to describe it.
That's this light does.
It creates,
It nourishes,
It sustains,
And reveals the union of its works.
What does that mean?
It reveals the union of its works.
It means that even as all of this is going on,
Yes,
No,
I want,
I don't want,
Go away,
Come closer,
All of this conflict and this conflicted,
Divided nature,
Wanting and not wanting,
As Christ would have said,
All of that going on,
All the intersection of these forces,
There is that which reveals the totality of those works,
And that is in it but not of it.
That which reveals the union of these works is,
In fact,
What allows us to rise above all of those movements.
Revelation itself is the grand lesson that leads us to the liberation it grants.
This is difficult.
Revelation,
Not what is revealed,
Because then there's something apart from the observer.
Revelation itself is the grand lesson,
Not something we extract from the lesson,
But for the fact of what is shown to us that we see as a part of ourselves.
That's the grand lesson because now we are no longer apart from the revelation.
We are a participant in it,
Including what is born as a result of what is being revealed.
I hope you can follow that.
I've got to go on.
Why is revelation the grand lesson?
Because the true lesson that liberates us from ourselves,
From this sense of separation,
That the true lesson isn't a construct of the mind.
You'll see this eventually.
Mind is always coming up with new lessons.
That's what it does for the longest time,
I might add,
Even when it's sophisticated,
Spiritually,
Still coming up with lesson,
Lesson,
Lesson,
Lesson.
The lesson we need is not in thought.
It will never be perceived in a mind that looks at thought as the solution to its suffering.
This true lesson is not achieved through effort as we understand it.
These lessons are something that we see in and of and from the light that reveals them,
So that the light that reveals the lesson is not separate from the lesson that's been revealed.
And what is the first thing this light reveals if we dare look?
Remember I said,
The first thing that we see,
The beginning of our true liberation is we see that we're blind.
Who wants to see they're blind?
Because if I actually saw I was blind,
Then when my mind posts and hosts some form in the light of its understanding what I must do and where I must go,
How I must be,
Then if I'm blind,
I recognize whatever I'm looking at can't be real.
I'm,
I'm,
I'm seeing something that isn't so.
So then if I actually recognize I'm blind,
Then I realize,
You know,
I wasn't blindsided by life.
Have you ever thought to yourself,
You were blindsided by life?
You weren't blindsided by life.
You may have been blindsided by something,
Someone who was equally as blind as you are.
A blind isn't,
A blind person,
Isn't a victim of circumstance.
They're victim of a consciousness that cannot see the circumstances that consciousness is creating.
So what we're blinded by is this identification with the unconscious creations of this own,
Of our own nature,
A nature that cannot see,
And listen to this,
A nature that can't see what it seeks is made in its own image.
As Narcissus couldn't understand the curse of having fallen in love with his own image,
A nature that looks at its own reflection and goes,
Ah,
That's what I need.
That's what I want.
That's what I must have.
And if to whatever degree it's true,
We begin to suspect,
Even in the smallest way,
A bit of this revelation,
What a weird revelation.
I see that when I am asleep,
That I don't mean physically,
I mean,
When I'm asleep,
When I'm not present,
When I'm not vigilant,
That when I'm asleep,
Nothing can change.
When I'm asleep,
I'm blind to being in a dream and the dream maker.
But if I actually see that,
That I'm blind and think about the contradiction,
How can I see I'm blind?
Because the seed of God can see what the seed of time can't.
Because the light of God,
The Christ within can see what the time nature,
The flesh cannot see.
I know those are loaded words,
But you'll understand they're just words.
And when you understand they're just words,
It will be because you have transcended the words.
And you'll also have transcended this suffering that isn't created by life itself,
But by the consciousness that we meet it with.
And if we see any of this,
The next step,
And if you will,
The next great lesson,
First great lesson,
If I'm not fully present,
I'm blind.
And if I'm blind,
How can the blind lead the blind except into a pit?
All the parables start to come true.
The next great lesson is this,
And we think,
Oh yes,
I can.
The wheat can't separate itself from its chaff.
The wheat can't separate itself from its chaff.
Think about how ludicrous this is.
Here I am a kernel of wheat.
I don't like this chaff.
I'm confined.
I'm limited.
I can't say what I want to say.
I want to be something else.
The little kernel of corn,
I'm acting it out.
Can that little kernel of corn throw off its own chaff?
That's ludicrous.
We can't free ourselves by ourselves.
If we could have,
We would have by now,
Instead of on the outside looking in and still feeling like we're missing something.
So if we get that much,
There must be a third party,
Mustn't there?
Because me,
Who's suffering,
Tries to throw off the chaff that it blames for the problem.
I want to throw off the problem.
I want to throw off the pain.
I want to throw off my past.
You can't throw off your past because the only thing trying to throw off your past is the past that doesn't want to relive itself again.
So there has to be a third party,
Another force at work,
A higher order of intelligence that can reveal what is false.
And in doing so without effort,
Separate that from what is true.
That's the threshing.
And it's not something we do.
It is something that we have to agree to undergo.
Again,
Back to the key lesson.
If there is the marriage of the divine,
Why am I outside looking in?
All I have to do is give the proper gift to enter into it,
The gift of myself.
And we begin to understand something of that meaning as it is revealed to us.
And in the very revelation,
The liberation,
Which at first won't feel like it,
But will eventually prove itself,
That in that liberation,
In that revelation,
I see,
You know what?
I really don't have any other choice.
I become choiceless,
Which this nature is terrified of.
But if we see,
If we understand even a little bit of this,
What happens?
I start to see something new.
Here comes this impetus,
This push.
I'm trying to escape the chaff of my past conditions.
How do I escape?
I imagine a future.
And suddenly I see the future I imagine is the past simply re-imagining itself to be.
So I no longer try to become anything that I've imagined,
Because imagination at that level is killed right at the outset.
It has no place in our life.
And as hard as this is to see,
As now that becomes clear gradually,
And that's all that can take place is gradually,
As that happens within that man or woman emerges the first glimpse of a completely different order of yourself,
Of myself,
A self that you can't imagine,
But that you can only be for the moment it is revealed part of that revelation.
And this is not another version of the same old self.
And it's not another identity that one takes on.
It's something altogether different,
A different being again,
Tomorrow,
I'll talk about this,
But for now,
What are we talking about?
We're talking about a higher level of understanding this new mind that looks at the moment without distorting it,
That looks at the moment without distorting it.
Did you know that when you look at a moment you don't want and you identify with what's describing to you the disturbance and then picturing the promise of a time to come,
That that thought is the disturbance,
Not what that thought points to as being the source of your suffering.
That's the proverbial ripple on the clear surface of a still lake.
So that if we understand that there is in fact a possibility of a life without distortion,
That judgment by its nature distorts what is revealed,
Then we begin to enter into that light instead of trying to escape it into what the light promises will liberate us.
So we become without effort,
Simply by,
If you will,
Seeing integrated,
We become a part of the marriage and the marriage can't be separated from what is being revealed.
And this other,
If you will,
This indwelling,
Again,
Call it by what you wish,
This light,
This life,
This Christ,
This divine nature,
This Buddha mind,
With us all along,
All along.
And I'll add,
And you will see,
God willing,
That as you begin to enter into this marriage,
You'll see how unimportant these names are and you'll also understand why there are so many wars fought in the name of these things.
Imagine a war fought in the name of love.
But for now,
We will just call this love,
This new nature.
Not the love we usually think of,
Emotional,
Sensational,
Not personal,
Not dependent on conditions,
As is our present love,
But a living intelligence that guides by revelation and by revelation transforms itself.
It is this love that begins our journey,
Just as that kernel of corn doesn't know it's on that journey,
The seed of God planted in this seed of the soul,
The seed of this human being that doesn't know it's on a journey,
Doesn't know that it's created to fulfill itself through the various forms and stages that it will take,
All the while that form just representing the life that gives it rise.
So that all these forms,
Every stage of one's life,
Every season of the moment,
All just aspects.
And as we see,
They're all just aspects.
We realize the thing begins complete,
It goes into what seems incomplete,
But it is complete and seized at the completion of all else.
So this moment that I'm describing of awakening this revelation is not a movement in time.
This is what's difficult for a time mind,
Isn't it?
For us,
Everything's time,
Got to go,
Got to do,
Got to get.
I look out at the world,
I'm not there.
I need to be there,
Always moving,
Always seeking distraction.
This is not,
I'm not describing a movement forward in time,
But a return to what has always been true.
And what's always been true again,
Like the prodigal son.
Yeah,
We left home,
But we've always been there.
And the father welcomes us back,
The new you.
But it was the new you that left and by the grace of God,
The new you that recognized,
You know what?
This is really pretty bad being out here like this.
So we start to understand the true nature of our home,
Of our heavenly home,
All of its forms.
When you and I are in the throes of suffering,
Do we think to ourselves,
You know,
This is a form of heaven?
No,
Of course we don't.
Why?
Because what we call heaven is judging that darkness and saying,
Oh,
Look how terrible that is.
But light doesn't fear darkness.
Light doesn't run from darkness.
Light is part of what transforms darkness into what awaits that in that darkness for that light to help it become and reveal.
So now we do what?
We come back to where we began.
We come back to where we began.
Kate,
Can we post,
If you will,
That key lesson again?
Read with me.
If every moment is a marriage made in heaven to which you and I have been invited,
Then why do we stand outside the door to enter?
We need only make a gift of ourselves.
How do we make that gift?
I'll close with this.
That gift is not made by effort,
Not by control,
Not by becoming something one day capable of making that gift.
The gift of ourselves is instantaneous when in the moment as it asks and every moment,
If you will,
Asks and reveals at the same time,
Do you agree,
Whatever your name is,
Do you agree to be the whole of this revelation?
Do you agree not to distort?
Do you agree as best you're capable to see where it is that all of that movement is in fact disturbing the revelation and the purity and the purifying force of it?
Do you agree?
And all to make a gift of yourself that inwardly you answer this revelation by saying,
I do.
Just like in any marriage ceremony,
I do.
When God showed Christ what was required and he said,
Not mine,
But thy will be done.
What are we saying?
I do.
I agree to this marriage and I understand in this marriage,
That something must pass so that something new may be perceived and brought forward.
I do.
I do.
And then you take your place at the wedding in the union of the moment.
And as you do that increasing,
You realize that every moment in every moment is this new conception,
The possibility of being part of a new creation as you are intended to be,
Because the seat of God lives inside of you.
I think that's all for now.
I went on a little bit longer,
But there was so much to say.
I hope I see you tomorrow.
Do your work.
Remember,
Make a gift of yourself.
How?
Say I do.
You can say,
Please help me to say I do and that you will.
And then you'll see,
You don't say I do.
You'll say,
I don't,
I won't,
I can't.
But the light will show you that nature.
And that is the revelation that turns it around and brings you into this new relationship with the divine.